Iranian President Invites Sudanese Counterpart to NAM Summit

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad invited his Sudanese counterpart Omar Hassan al-Bashir to attend the next summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran this summer.

Iranian Vice-President for International Affairs Ali Saeedlou, who is in Sudan for an official three-day visit, submitted the invitation message from President Ahmadinejad to Bashir.

Late in March 2012, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast told FNA that the 16th meeting of the NAM heads of state would be held in Tehran in summer, and hoped that “the meeting will be held in the best possible manner”.

“This meeting is of high importance and member states of the movement have very high capacity to influence political and international developments,” he added.

The spokesman added that participation of NAM leaders in the Tehran meeting could result in positive decisions on various political issues.

Iran has the rotating presidency of the Movement for three years.

NAM, which has 118 member states, is an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. NAM is the largest grouping of countries outside of the United Nations.

NAM member states represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations’ members and comprise 55% of the world population, particularly countries considered to be developing or part of the Third World.

The movement is largely the brainchild of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, former President of Egypt Jamal Abdul Nasser, and former Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito.

It was founded in April 1955 and has 118 members. The purpose of the organization as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979 is to ensure “the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries” in their “struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics.”